April 11th, 2011

(no subject) @ 07:26 pm

I don't really have the shelf-space or the scratch for even a repro of Burton's Thousand Nights and a Night, but again the intertubes and the kindle come to my aid. But it's not all entertainment... from the intro:

Apparently England is ever forgetting that she is at present the greatest Mohammedan empire in the world. Of late years she has systematically neglected Arabism and, indeed, actively discouraged it in examinations for the Indian Civil Service, where it is incomparably more valuable than Greek and Latin. Hence, when suddenly compelled to assume the reins of government in Moslem lands, as Afghanistan in times past and Egypt at present, she fails after a fashion which scandalises her few (very few) friends; and her crass ignorance concerning the Oriental peoples which should most interest her, exposes her to the contempt of Europe as well as of the Eastern world.